Filmmakers base their work on making artistic decisions that hopefully make sense in relation to what kind of story they want to tell. Bringing Portman to score “Heart’s War” shows the director was more interested in having a score that underlines the human drama of the story rather than hiring a composer that would use all the classical “war” elements to create a “war” musical landscape. While not experimental, Portman’s score reflects the duality of the human condition; the music is both sad and hopeful, dark and romantic. Her approach is elegant and makes sense to me. Whether the movie is successful or not in avoiding to present war itself as the center of the story is another matter, but every time the creators of a movie tell a story the way the think it should be told instead of the way people expect it to be told they help maintain diversity and free artistic expression, two elements that are fundamental in the development of art.